This class felt like a nice refresher to our pediatric course. I still hope to learn more about IEP goals and benchmarks, and I hope to gain more experience in the future. I feel that it would be great for future students to receive a few examples of IEP goals and benchmarks to learn from. During my time in this course,  I got the opportunity to build my competence of occupational therapy in school-based practice by getting the chance to view different IEP’s, talk to OT, OTA’s, and teachers. It was also great to see how school accommodations are integrated for each student. I feel that the school I observed had a great support system for the children- they had a sensory classroom in all school buildings along with the social worker across the self-contained classroom. It was great to see the children transition from the generalized classroom to their self-contained classroom or to the music room. I had the opportunity to ask the OT and OTA about their work experience, having a contract versus working for the district and things to continue to advocate for to better help the students we work with. I got to see schedules for the children that have an IEP (pictured below) and I had the opportunity to learn about different learning methods and assistive equipment used in the classrooms with the support of the OT, PT, Social Worker, and the teacher. I learned that more and more school districts are implementing pushout from the self-contained classrooms so that students can engage with peers in general classes and times.

Wiggle Wobble Chair Feet

This simple accomodation, allows for children to receive input without distracting classmates as well as increasing their safety compared to other chair options such as the wobble chair where children could potentially fall if the chair tips over.